In November of 1992, Tim Berners-Lee completed edits to a set of W3 pages that are, remarkably, still available. I went looking for something for an article I’m writing and ended up there… staring at it… as if it were created by some fifteenth century sculptor.

Solid Foundation

The potential for the “W3″ was so underestimated by the people who didn’t understand it that I spent most of my days trying to explain what I was doing (and there really wasn’t that much to discuss back then). It was a new way of communicating. No pornography, no hiding predators, no online advertising as an $8B (US) industry.

It was a solid foundation for the sharing of research information. The “World” was simple. It was also boring.

True Open Source

When I first sat down at a PC to “develop” or “code” (terms that my colleagues laugh at when associated with a picture of me going through lines of CSS and Javascript), I didn’t think about the cost of it. I simply went into Notepad and copied what someone else had done and made my own special tweaks and showed it to people in Netscape 1.0a.

How amazing it is now to look back and think of what I was being given. A chance to take what I previously designed on paper and make it blink (yes, blink) or eventually scroll in a marquee (yes, scroll).

As the usability side of things started to take shape I finally realized that I was potentially annoying many people, so I stopped the blinking and I stopped the scrolling and I thought about whether or not I really wanted to get involved in this “World Wide Web thing”.

Right Time, Right Place

I’m not sure what I would have done if I hadn’t gotten the chance to take over a company Web site as my full time job in 1995. I believe I would be designing trade show booths or direct mail postcards and wishing that I had started on the ground floor. I’d be jealous of the things I would have missed.

Fortunately, I was lucky. My timing was impeccable and I knew it. The Web wasn’t something that was going to go away anytime soon. Not with the … red light industry already starting to take hold (I mean, it wasn’t a long leap from BBS to Web if you were motivated).

I was in the right time at the right place and so were a million other folks.

Opportunities

Since the inception of the Web I’ve experienced many personal triumphs in a career that has taken me from one side of the world to the other and many, many points in between. Again, I am lucky. Because of the Web I have been given the opportunity to

• travel to exotic locations
• meet and network with incredibly talented people (much more so than I)
• understand the difference between local and global actions
• feel the impact of the decisions of our government on foreign soil
• come home and enjoy my career, and
• channel love, frustration, energy, sadness and happiness through an incredible medium

Moving Faster

The Web moves fast. It’s starting to melt together. It’s starting to blur lines and bring together different lifestyles and it’s empowering people more so than any other technology I can think of. Whatever version one applies to this medium, one thing is for certain:

The best is yet to come.

It’s Friday and we’re all feeling a little looney [sic].

Happy Anniversary, Bugs

Today is the anniversary of Bugs’ debut in 1940. And while it’s true that the character in development had been in previous shorts, today is the official day that Bugs Bunny appeared as himself against Elmer Fudd.

Bugs Bunny is a Brand

Here are my top 5 reasons (in no particular order) as to why Bugs is a brand:

1. There is an emotional connection to his image.
2. There is a fulfilled promise of being entertained (to some more than others — especially men).
3. A level of implied values such as dignity are present in his behavior (except when wearing women’s clothing, but even then…).
4. His image is consistent (and remains so to this day).
5. He has a recognized audio marker (What’s up, Doc?).

Lessons from Bugs

Bugs Bunny didn’t change his core attributes in the face of adversity. Guns, wars and red monsters were no match for the consistent nature of his personal brand. I believe wholeheartedly that there are certain brand elements in entertainment that, when applied correctly, can help us in managing and developing our corporate brands.

Here’s an example:

Lesson: Regardless of your adversary, never change your messaging.

Application: In a sales call, your job is to do what you can to convince your potential client that you are the right team for the job. But to what end? I would definitely agree that there are times when you need to be flexible (timing, number of comprehensives sent for review, etc…), but changing your core set of products or services to make a desperate attempt at saving a sale is not a good idea. You will ultimately risk failing for the sake of one sale, when in reality you could have stood your ground and be sure that you wouldn’t be compromising your brand promise.

Take a moment to think about your brand promise and ask yourself, “What would Bugs do?”

A funny thing happened on the way to a meeting the other day: I decided not to use my iPhone to call a business contact, even though my BlackBerry was running on near-empty.

My Private Universe

Since starting a small business back in 1996 and having been in consulting for nearly as long, I have not had a mobile device that I exclusively used for my own friends and family. I’ve always used my mobile number for both business and pleasure, basically ensuring that I was on the clock 24/7.

While this is still the case (and probably will be for many, many years) the iPhone became something very personal and very private to me. You see, in order to get this line set up and not ruin my two business lines, I had to start from scratch. I had a brand-new mobile address. It appears that I also gained (at least for a short time) my own private universe.

I can, like any other person I know, call people and use those minutes and make sure that I basically allow my number to be spread virally and without my control. I am not sure, however, that I’m ready to do this.

The iPhone represents much more than a beautiful design and a beautiful interface. It represents a place for me to hang out for a while. Catch a flick. Listen to some good, old blues and jazz and just take a moment to breathe. It’s my new private universe.

Conditional Love

I love technology and I’m never far away from it; this includes vacation. It’s not a work thing, it’s a geek thing. I like new, faster and better. It helps, too, if that includes a relatively acceptable price tag (in the case of the iPhone this was an issue whether or not a client is footing the bill).

This love for technology is conditional. There are many times where I let it get to me, but only when I’m trying to harness it. It doesn’t love me back, however, so as I become older, I become more jaded. This, of course, will only help my wallet.

Gaining Perspective

I will, I’m sure, run out of time in this new thing. I will unintentionally abandon it on weekend journeys without thought. I will use the iPhone with emotion commonly spared for small puppies until the newness dissipates. I will eventually look at it as another monthly bill from a company that can’t keep the connection strong enough on an antiquated network. I will even, as time goes by, forget that I even have a mobile number associated with it unless I actually start handing it out.

However, I will always look fondly on the fact that I am willing to be an early adopter. I like knowing the bugs and calling them out and talking about them rather than defending them. I like the fact that there are people who want one but won’t make the leap until the second generation. People like me actually help a product get better by studying it and reporting back the shortcomings while enjoying the features that work.

In this, and in life, I’m constantly gaining perspective.

In my previous post, I mentioned the importance of being fresh and original with your client’s design as it pertains to their competition. But what about the independent designer or creative agency? What factors apply to them regarding client diversity?

Mix it up

We very recently walked away from a response to an RFP thinking that we had every element covered. A well-crafted and thoughtful response, including resumes and biographic information, anecdotal evidence of our client experience, a case study or two and the right (and fair) pricing model based on the tasks being presented.

Unfortunately, the one thing we didn’t have was the right client project example to prove we knew their industry. No use crying over spilled RFP, but it is a shame, actually, since we spent a great deal of personal time and effort at both previous jobs and on previous projects learning a great deal about the industry in question.

As a creative firm, it’s our responsibility to chase after projects that give us a well-rounded portfolio. Getting these projects, however, takes time and more effort than sometimes lands in our comfort zone. The thing we need to do is mix it up and go outside our zone and do what we can to continuously push the limits of our very talented staff. Without challenge we become complacent. Complacent Web design is not really “hot” these days (nor should it ever be).

“Why” Matters

Without much reflection on what happened, I went forward thinking “We have everything they need. I’m surprised we didn’t get it.” I know, of course, it matters a great deal “why” we don’t get awarded certain projects. Sometimes it’s a matter of price, sometimes it’s a matter of how many people are required to staff the project, and sometimes we have no idea. That’s a problem.

Asking the client “why” should be a very common element to the process. In our case, the person who sent us the RFP was happy to talk us through the process and even point out what we could do to earn their future business (a rare but welcome case indeed).

Follow up with the client and engage in a discussion about why you weren’t right for the engagement. It could be something as simple as your location or willingness to travel. Other times, it could be that you’ve priced yourself out of the running. Whatever the case, if you don’t know why then you can’t learn how to adjust for future responses.

Follow Up

I tell people that sales is not about bugging people. It’s about a conversation between a need and a solution. We don’t do sales. We have conversations. Sales should not have a negative connotation, but it does.

The difference in following up with a lost engagement is that you’re tuned in to what and when they did over a specific period of time. Making sure you know what they wanted in Phase II or III of the project may lead to work that was uncovered by the company that can’t be handled by their current vendor. It will also give you the chance to see whether or not you’re in line with the original request to track your own pricing estimates.

Good luck and get creative.

It often feels as though we’re stuck in a pattern. Mostly, it’s when one client sees what a competitor is doing (or hears of what is to come) that it brings about an RFP and the eventual discussion about how “Company A” does their stuff and how “Company B” is on the path to do the same, and the client decides they want to join the fun.

Keep it Real

When a potential client contacts us about changing their existing brand, they invariably mention their competition as one of the main factors in needing the new creative. However, it’s our job as consultants, to not let them benchmark the competition so deeply that they end up requesting a duplicate effort or a very similar design pattern. Their job is to give you what they believe will help them reach their audience.

Diversity Matters

It is important to understand the difference between visual cues and visual brand elements that should or should not be employed in your client’s design when they’re guiding the process of their site design. In a perfect world, we create the creative brief, bring it back to the office, discuss over many short brainstorming meetings how to approach it and then come up with a set of designs that work well with the initial branding elements while keeping our eyes on the things that worked from the competition.

We don’t, however, copy. We will find ways of working industry strategy into online brand elements. Diversity from the competition is key. Let others follow, so long as you’ve done your homework and are creating something that the client’s customer base will embrace.

Take the Time to Learn

It’s absolutely legal to call a competitor of your client and ask guiding questions about their site; this especially applies to any usability or focus group studies. We’ve done it on a large number of our projects, and you’d be surprised how many marketing and design managers are willing to academically discuss things they’ve done to separate their information to meet the client’s behavior or the steps they’ve taken to mitigate cart abandonment.

Have fun

Design, creative process and information architecture are supposed to be enjoyable. You’re in the driver’s seat on the client’s new face. Have fun with it. Try different things. Give options. If you have to, give more options than you’ve scoped in the project. Enjoy your job and show it in your work. Diversity matters.